ardship. Their fare was in strict accordance
with the rest of their situation. It consisted of a store of salted
meat, and rye bread, which had been baked in autumn, and when they came
to use it, was so hard, that it required to be chopped up with hatchets,
and to be moistened with hot water. Meal and flour will not keep in this
mountain atmosphere, but would become mouldy,--they are, therefore,
obliged to bake it soon after the corn is threshed out. Our youthful
anchorites were lodged gratuitously by the people of Dormilleuse, who
also liberally supplied them with food for fuel, scarce as it was,
but if the pastor had not laid in a stock of provisions, the scanty
resources of the village could not have met the demands of so many
mouths, in addition to its native population.

A note of the expenditure upon this occasion will excite some wonder in
the minds of many readers, who are not aware how much good may be done
at a small cost, when the stream of bounty is made to pass through
proper channels.

"Our disbursements for the adult school, including candles, ink, and
paper, the salary of an assistant master, and food for the sixteen or
seventeen students who came from a distance, did not exceed 560 francs
(about 22_l._ 10_s._) for four months. Of this sum I can replace a
little more than two-thirds, because some of the students have repaid
their share of the expense, and even the poorest furnished their quota
of bread. We did not provide commons for those who belonged to
Dormilleuse, because they boarded at home."

[14] They have no slates in this country--nor in the valleys of
Piemont.--Two benevolent benefactors to the Protestant cause
in Italy, who wished to confer a benefit upon the schools of
Piemont, have enabled me to supply the Vaudois schools with
this useful and economical article.

* * * * *

THE NATURALIST.

* * * * *

NOTES

Abridged from the _Magazine of Natural History_.

[Illustration: (The Fern Owl, showing the greater length of the middle
claw, and its provision for the peculiar posture of the bird.)]

_Habits of the Fern Owl, by Rusticus_.--Beyond Godalming, on the Liphook
road, is a great tract of barren heathy land: it stretches wide in every
direction, and includes immense peat-bogs, and several large ponds. One
particular district, called the Pudmores, is the favourite reso